Matplotlib - add colorbar to a sequence of line plots
I have a sequence of line plots for two variables (x,y) for a number of different values of a variable z. I would normally add the line plots with legends like this:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
# suppose mydata is a list of tuples containing (xs, ys, z)
# where xs and ys are lists of x's and y's and z is a number.
legns = []
for(xs,ys,z) in mydata:
pl = ax.plot(xs,ys,color = (z,0,0))
legns.append("z = %f"%(z))
ax.legends(legns)
plt.show()
But I have too many graphs and the legends will cover the graph. I'd rather have a colorbar indicating the value of z corresponding to the color. I can't find anything like that in the galery and all my attempts do deal with the colorbar failed. Apparently I must create a collection of plots before trying to add a colorbar.
Is there an easy way to do this? Thanks.
EDIT (clarification):
I wanted to do something like this:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.cm as cm
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
mycmap = cm.hot
# suppose mydata is a list of tuples containing (xs, ys, z)
# where xs and ys are lists of x's and y's and z is a number between 0 and 1
plots = []
for(xs,ys,z) in mydata:
pl = ax.plot(xs,ys,color = mycmap(z))
plots.append(pl)
fig.colorbar(plots)
plt.show()
But this won't work according to the Matplotlib reference because a list of plots is not a "mappable", whatever this means.
I've created an alternative plot function using LineCollection
:
def myplot(ax,xs,ys,zs, cmap):
plot = lc([zip(x,y) for (x,y) in zip(xs,ys)], cmap = cmap)
plot.set_array(array(zs))
x0,x1 = amin(xs),amax(xs)
y0,y1 = amin(ys),amax(ys)
ax.add_collection(plot)
ax.set_xlim(x0,x1)
ax.set_ylim(y0,y1)
return plot
xs
and ys
are lists of lists of x and y coordinates and zs
is a list of the different conditions to colorize each line. It feels a bit like a cludge though... I thought that there would be a more neat way to do this. I like the flexibility of the plt.plot()
function.
Solution 1:
(I know this is an old question but...) Colorbars require a matplotlib.cm.ScalarMappable
, plt.plot
produces lines which are not scalar mappable, therefore, in order to make a colorbar, we are going to need to make a scalar mappable.
Ok. So the constructor of a ScalarMappable
takes a cmap
and a norm
instance. (norms scale data to the range 0-1, cmaps you have already worked with and take a number between 0-1 and returns a color). So in your case:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
sm = plt.cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=my_cmap, norm=plt.normalize(min=0, max=1))
plt.colorbar(sm)
Because your data is in the range 0-1 already, you can simplify the sm
creation to:
sm = plt.cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=my_cmap)
Hope that helps somebody.
EDIT: For matplotlib v1.2 or greater the code becomes:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
sm = plt.cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=my_cmap, norm=plt.normalize(vmin=0, vmax=1))
# fake up the array of the scalar mappable. Urgh...
sm._A = []
plt.colorbar(sm)
EDIT: For matplotlib v1.3 or greater the code becomes:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
sm = plt.cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=my_cmap, norm=plt.Normalize(vmin=0, vmax=1))
# fake up the array of the scalar mappable. Urgh...
sm._A = []
plt.colorbar(sm)
EDIT: For matplotlib v3.1 or greater simplifies to:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
sm = plt.cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=my_cmap, norm=plt.Normalize(vmin=0, vmax=1))
plt.colorbar(sm)
Solution 2:
Here's one way to do it while still using plt.plot(). Basically, you make a throw-away plot and get the colorbar from there.
import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
min, max = (-40, 30)
step = 10
# Setting up a colormap that's a simple transtion
mymap = mpl.colors.LinearSegmentedColormap.from_list('mycolors',['blue','red'])
# Using contourf to provide my colorbar info, then clearing the figure
Z = [[0,0],[0,0]]
levels = range(min,max+step,step)
CS3 = plt.contourf(Z, levels, cmap=mymap)
plt.clf()
# Plotting what I actually want
X=[[1,2],[1,2],[1,2],[1,2]]
Y=[[1,2],[1,3],[1,4],[1,5]]
Z=[-40,-20,0,30]
for x,y,z in zip(X,Y,Z):
# setting rgb color based on z normalized to my range
r = (float(z)-min)/(max-min)
g = 0
b = 1-r
plt.plot(x,y,color=(r,g,b))
plt.colorbar(CS3) # using the colorbar info I got from contourf
plt.show()
It's a little wasteful, but convenient. It's also not very wasteful if you make multiple plots as you can call plt.colorbar() without regenerating the info for it.
Solution 3:
Here is a slightly simplied example inspired by the top answer given by Boris and Hooked (Thanks for the great idea!):
1. Discrete colorbar
Discrete colorbar is more involved, because colormap generated by mpl.cm.get_cmap()
is not a mappable image needed as a colorbar()
argument. A dummie mappable needs to generated as shown below:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib as mpl
n_lines = 5
x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
y = np.sin(x[:, None] + np.pi * np.linspace(0, 1, n_lines))
c = np.arange(1, n_lines + 1)
cmap = mpl.cm.get_cmap('jet', n_lines)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(dpi=100)
# Make dummie mappable
dummie_cax = ax.scatter(c, c, c=c, cmap=cmap)
# Clear axis
ax.cla()
for i, yi in enumerate(y.T):
ax.plot(x, yi, c=cmap(i))
fig.colorbar(dummie_cax, ticks=c)
plt.show();
This will produce a plot with a discrete colorbar:
2. Continuous colorbar
Continuous colorbar is less involved, as mpl.cm.ScalarMappable()
allows us to obtain an "image" for colorbar()
.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib as mpl
n_lines = 5
x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
y = np.sin(x[:, None] + np.pi * np.linspace(0, 1, n_lines))
c = np.arange(1, n_lines + 1)
norm = mpl.colors.Normalize(vmin=c.min(), vmax=c.max())
cmap = mpl.cm.ScalarMappable(norm=norm, cmap=mpl.cm.jet)
cmap.set_array([])
fig, ax = plt.subplots(dpi=100)
for i, yi in enumerate(y.T):
ax.plot(x, yi, c=cmap.to_rgba(i + 1))
fig.colorbar(cmap, ticks=c)
plt.show();
This will produce a plot with a continuous colorbar:
[Side note] In this example, I personally don't know why cmap.set_array([])
is necessary (otherwise we'd get error messages). If someone understand the principles under the hood, please comment :)